Legal Services

Advice Group has developed one of the best practices of legal services provision to foreign investors in western Ukraine via our head office in Lviv, more over we are represented by our of-counsels lawyers in Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Zakarpattya, Lutsk and Rivne region. Nevertheless our lawyers possess strong knowledge of Ukrainian commercial and civil law and provide high-quality legal services all over Ukraine.

Commercial Law

Our core practices within commercial law are contract law, bankruptcy, insolvency and investigations.

Contract Law

Advice Group lawyers are experienced in drafting, due-diligence and enforcement of the contracts taking into account peculiarities of a certain field of industry. Over the years we have succeeded to develope large database of legal solutions for agriculture, manufacturing, IT, retail and wholesale, bio technologies, energy, banking, transport, construction, publishing etc. Business practice in Ukraine proves that a good contract – is a key to successful and long-term relationships between our clients and their partners. In this respect the remedies we can offer include, but are not limited to: due diligence or other legal analysis of all kinds of agreements and contracts, drafting and implementation of changes to agreements, conduct of negotiations and pre-negotiation fact base preparation prior to conclusion of agreements, legal advice on all types of Ukrainian national and international business transactions and possible consequences of non-execution of contracts, giving legal opinions regarding validity, enforceability and completeness of concluded/drafted contracts as well as regarding possible tax consequences of contracts execution, advice on contractual security.

Insolvency & Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy procedures are extremely complex and require advice of the most dedicated professionals in any jurisdiction and foremost in Ukraine. Advice Group legal team provides all kinds of services to facilitate the company’s rehabilitation as well as to untangle the schemes used to withdrawal of money or other debtor’s assets. Our Insolvency and Bankruptcy practice legal experts have an impressive range of experience in giving advice on either alternatives to bankruptcy, particularly: financial restructuring, liquidation avoiding bankruptcy procedure, developing of appropriate strategy to restore solvency or legal assistance of bankruptcy procedure starting from drafting and filling in petitions for debtor’s bankruptcy, disputing claims made by unscrupulous creditors, participating in creditors’ meetings/committee meetings etc., to representation in bankruptcy litigation disputes. Advice Group lawyers have broad experience in numerous areas of law, including contract, corporate, M&A, real estate and other litigation matters that arise out of or in connection with bankruptcy and insolvency matters.

Investigations

We are to advise clients on the whole range of investigations and regulatory enforcement matters, tax raids; the use/misuse of confidential information; and financial crime issues. In this respect we provide tax and financial investigations, anti-bribery and corruption investigations, checking the solvency of the future or current Ukrainian business partner or its owner in different public, non-governmental registers and other sources. Advice Group lawyers have great experience in estimating the credibility of a business partner in Ukraine by a legal analysis of the court practice and appropriate case databases, open tax related information, statistics and public opinion outlined in the mediab and other sources. Having a very individual approach to each and every customer we have successfully advised numerous investors and local businesses to continue with certain projects as well as refrain from potentially problematic business operations.

Tax & Customs

Professional and practical tax consulting of Advice Group is well known and one of the most demanded services requested by our clients. Ukrainian tax legislation is highly complex and ambiguous with many contradictory provisions. With top-class expertise obtained in sophisticated tax areas Advice Group is one of the few companies locally able to provide tailor-made solutions in any tax matter. Main services of this practice group include:

general tax advice for any business model or individual including in any domestic or international transaction;

advice on tax favorable jurisdictions and structuring of respective transactions;

effective tax structuring in M&A matters;

representing the interests of the clients in tax administrative and court disputes;

limited tax related due diligence;

payment of dividends and structuring of contractual payments to the shareholders;

advice on cross-border transactions and application of double taxation treaties;

coordination of legal work in tax favorable jurisdictions;

advice and support in VAT reimbursement;

representing the interests of the clients in any tax disputes, including in criminal cases against the management of the company;

consulting in other dispute resolution related matters.

Corporate Law

Corporate legal advice is among the most wanted and needed by Advice Group clients. Correct implementation of Ukrainian corporate law provisions leads to preventing negative consequences, which in certain cases may result in to ceasing of business activities in Ukraine. Regardless the fact that Ukraine is by far not in the sphere of influence of common law, and traditionally is considered to be a civil law state, the current legal system provides a very different implementation of legal regulations of corporate issues where in many cases the outcome of the highest commercial courts proceeding is rather controversial to similar cases or to the traditional writing of the legal norms in commercial code and related laws. With this regard Advice Group provides very special to all its clients corporate issues comprehensive, delicate and result oriented approach in preparing proper solutions for M&A, corporate rights transactions, senior management appointments, internal control, decision making process by the management etc. We believe that such philosophy of service rendering brought us to the short list of the leaders of Western Ukraine corporate law solution providers in the following areas:

General corporate legal advice

Under the general corporate legal expertise we render services of any complexity meanwhile from turnkey start-up procedures, including but not limiting to company registration in western Ukraine and other regions, articles of association drafting, as well as assembling legal solutions for shareholders relations regulations aiming to prevent conflicts and corporate litigation in future, securing corporate rights safety and arranging proper legal instruments for successful and risk free implementation of investment projects. For the local business environment the crucial important issue of assurance on top management anti-fraud practices and stakeholder’s rights and property protection is among the most popular corporate legal service we provide for business owners. According to our experience, proper corporate legal framework is the key to success of business operation in Ukraine.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Advice Group legal team specializes on M&A transactions as we traditionally support most project which involve foreign investors in Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Volyn, Rivne and Zakarpattya regions. In many cases proper due diligence of the companies is the stage to begin with. As our company has one of the strongest tax law practices in western Ukraine we do pay very much attention to tax related issues and risks in M&A operations. Provision of legal advice on development of key-point base for negotiations and actual representation in the merger and acquisition processes is second most important part of the transaction. Furthermore turnkey legal assistance on SPA and other schemes of mergers and acquisitions, including optimization of tax structure on international transactions are also core aspects of Advice Group M&A practice. Being very actively involved in the local M&A market considering the trend to optimization of business structure by closing some activities we often offer quick and considerably inexpensive solutions on companies liquidation or sale to friendly third parties for cost optimization and rapid withdrawal from Ukraine.

Business related administration

For the sake of business related administration services Advice Group provides its clients with high-quality legal services on representation of the client at the state and local governmental authorities, legal assistance in the ongoing client’s business operation, advice and legal assistance in obtaining of permit documents and other issues related to business administration. Nominal and actual management of client’s business by our lawyers has proved to be appreciated and valued by our clients.

Public-Private Partnership

As an active participant of public life either in Lviv region or in Western Ukraine based on regular cooperation with public authorities, Advice Group has positive practice in public-private partnership (PPP) on all stages of its implementation starting from legal assistance in PPP structuring related to: business sector diagnostic and analysis procedures, development of PPP implementation road map, development and selection of option for PPP implementation, – up to full legal assistance in preparatory works and PPP implementation. Advice and legal assistance in ongoing business operation of PPP ventures have been first started in 2009 by our company and further on we have advised on numerous projects in environment and sustainable development projects, sport events such EURO 2012 in Lviv and other PPP projects where foreign private institutions have been involved in cooperation with local government and business.

Dispute Resolution

Legal specialists of Advice Group are capable of effectively representing interests of our clients before any state institutions and organizations in Ukraine and abroad, understanding that each matter requires a unique and diligent approach as well as insightful knowledge. We guarantee our clients the legitimacy, transparency and efficiency in resolving disputes. We actively pursue all avenues of dispute resolution available and advise clients on choosing the method most suitable for them. Main services of this practice group include:

Litigation

Our attorneys have substantial experience in representing clients in commercial, civil, administrative and in certain types of criminal cases in all courts and instances in Ukraine, mainly covering Western Ukraine region. In this area we provide general consultancy in domestic and international litigations and dispute resolution matters, including:

assistance in drafting legal documents, choice of governing law, choice of dispute resolution form, together with choice of the international arbitration form depending on assumed costs, experience and geography of a possible dispute;

determination of litigation perspectives and potential risks;

complete representation of the interests of the client in disputes (initial fact finding, questioning and evidence collection, formation of a legal position/strategy, submission of statements of claims/statements of defense/counter claims/petitions, participation in the court hearings, drafting of amicable settlement agreements etc.);

representing clients in all stages of bankruptcy proceedings and company rehabilitation (restore of insolvency).

Mediation

Our legal experts are also well experienced in conducting negotiations, mediation and other alternative dispute resolution techniques including pre-trial negotiations and conduct of mediation procedures.

Arbitration

One of the most important and strong sides of our practice is unique experience in International commercial arbitration in Western Ukraine. In this area we provide complete representation of the client in Ukraine and abroad in international commercial arbitration and post-arbitration procedures, particularly enforcement awards, challenging arbitral awards rendered in Ukraine, defence in the recognition and enforcement proceedings; coordination of work of lawyers from different legal systems in international cases; provision of expert opinions in Ukrainian law for proceedings abroad; due diligence of pending cases.

Enforcement procedures

Advice Group offers its clients the services concerning comprehensive assistance in the enforcement of court orders, court decisions and foreign arbitral awards.

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Real Estate

Real estate practice has strongly developed over the last 10 years. While plenty of legal obstacles still exist (moratorium on farm land; absence of a unified register of rights; long lasting title registration procedures) real estate in Western Ukraine has faced enormous rise. This practice area remains rather complicated and professional legal advice is most commonly required in any real estate transaction in Ukraine. Our lawyers are well experienced in such areas of real estate as:

full support of the immovable property acquisitions and other real estate connected transactions;

legal advice concerning the land relations, including renting, acquisition, land plot designation change, support in the relations with the state bodies dealing with land matters, etc;

assistance in real estate titles registration, assistance in the state registration of land plots;

consulting on the other real estate related matters.

Criminal Law

Criminal practice is one of the most socially important spheres of law due to special character of relations, which are defended by the criminal law regulations. Current criminal practice in Ukraine is going through the period of implementation of new criminal law regulations (particularly procedural), what is caused by the harmonization of the Ukrainian criminal legislation to the best world criminal regulation practices. This creates an enormous need in experienced attorneys, who are well oriented in criminal related situations and act, at first, on prevention, and after, on solution of criminal matters. It is worth mentioning that Advice Group criminal practice is not as wide as commercial, tax & customs, corporate, real estate etc., concentrated mainly on assistance in criminal cases related to tax, corporate and corruption spheres. However, Advice Group attorneys are highly confident in other conventional criminal cases. Services of Advice Group attorneys within this practice cover: giving advice, legal information, explanations and legal analysis on criminal law issues; procedural documentation drafting; defending of clients’ interests during measures of investigation and trials; appeal of the actions and procedural documents of criminal investigation authorities etc.

Labor Law

Despite the fact that labor is considered as one of the simplest legal practice areas, however, this is not always the case in Ukraine. Labor legislation of Ukraine is obsolete. Taking into consideration current labor legislative framework in Ukraine professional advice in this area allows preventing negative consequences either for the employer or the employee and also creates secure relationship within the company. Non-compliance with Ukrainian labor legislation may result in high financial sanctions as well as criminal responsibility for the management. Being among the top labor law advisers in Western Ukraine Advice Group labor practice consists in giving advice on general labor issues, HR documentation drafting, legal assistance in employment, particularly: top management (managers, accountants, lawyers etc.) candidates selection and assessment, employment of foreign citizens and solution of residence issues related to such employment. The advantages of Advice Group labor solutions are close cooperation with HR specialists and accountants, gathered under one roof at Advice Group office in Lviv. This makes provision of legal advice in labor related issues more comprehensive, qualitative and efficient.

Medical and Pharmaceutical Law

Legal regulation of the establishment of the private medical institutions, medical care provision and pharmaceutical production by the private subjects is greatly complicated and unclear in Ukraine. The legislation and legal doctrine of medical and pharmaceutical law is generally undeveloped. Thus, the effective conduct of business in the medical and pharmaceutical sphere has to be accompanied by the qualified legal advice. Furthermore, the peculiarities of the named sphere and the highest level of medical practice and pharmaceutical business responsibility cause the need for precise and correct legal services.

The lawyers of Advice Group are qualified in the sphere of medical and pharmaceutical law and provide our clients with the following legal services:

assistance in foundation of medical and pharmaceutical institutions of different organisational forms and start-up of medical and pharmaceutical business;

consulting on the legal aspects of medical and pharmaceutical business operation;

assistance in the licensing, accreditation and obtaining of other obligatory permit documentation in the sphere of medical and pharmaceutical sphere;

assistance in the state registration of the medicines and supplies;

assistance in patenting of the medicines and other issues concerning the intellectual property in the sphere of medical and pharmaceutical law;

drafting of the obligatory documentation and contracts for the provision of medical care;